


Yeah but what if Usopp really was God?

by FriendlyFrat_Boy



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, God Usopp - Freeform, Hugs, Omnipotance, Regret, Usopp is a God, crackfic, how do i explain this, kind of a crackfic but also not?, like literally - Freeform, new devilfruit, tag only because
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 09:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24847387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendlyFrat_Boy/pseuds/FriendlyFrat_Boy
Summary: Years ago, back in Syrup Village, Usopp ate a strange fruit that gave him strange abilities. Too strange. Too... strong. Afraid of what he had become, what powers he had, he sealed away his powers and memories, giving himself the ability to swim as a preventive measure to keep himself from finding out the truth.Years later, after Dressrosa was all and done with, Usopp now goes under a new title: God Usopp.Seeing his poster awakens something long-forgotten inside him.//Cross-posted onto fanfiction.net
Comments: 10
Kudos: 36





	1. Prologue: An (Un)fortunate Discovery

Prologue:

An (Un)Fortunate Discovery

"What do you think it is?" Piiman asked, poking at the odd-looking fruit with a twig he found just beside it. No sensible pirate would immediately touch a mysterious fruit, that'd be silly.

"No idea," Tamanegi admitted, readjusting his glasses. If anything, he wanted to ask his apple-faced friend to stop poking the strange thing (after all, it might just be a bomb or something their eccentric captain had left lying about), but it hadn't exploded yet, so he decided to let it be.

"It might be a weird onion?" Ninjin proposed, glancing between his two friends from behind his bangs. Sometimes, he himself wondered how he could see anything from his plumage, but questions like that were best left to be answered by Usopp. As the eldest among them, he seemed to know his stuff. With this thought came yet another proposition. "Maybe we should ask Usopp about it?"

"Ask me about what?" the devil spoken of asked, popping up behind them like some sort of ghost. They didn't bother to hide the thing, instead deciding to follow his gaze as it wandered from each of them down to the fruit. "Eh, what's this?"

Bending down, Usopp fearlessly picked up the odd thing. It was completely spherical in shape and with the surface being a pure white like the clouds above, it really did resemble an onion. Sort of. It lacked the whole "ogre layers" thing, but even so, it wouldn't have been too strange to confuse it for one.

The only thing that betrayed its status as a fruit of some sort was the single black leaf protruding from a most-likely random side. Usopp turned it over in his hand, his tanned fingers following along it, noticing how there wasn't even a single ridge or bump to it. No wonder his crew had been so apprehensive about it.

"Do you know what it is, Cap'n?" Tamanegi asked, tilting his head, the little tuft of hair sprouting out from it tilting along with it. Usopp closed his eyes, seemingly in deep thought. A deep hum escaped his accentuated lips as if to prove he was actually thinking and not just trying to fall asleep on two legs. After a second or so, his eyes snapped back open, that familiar creative glint shining in his round eyes.

"It's a God's fruit!" he stated, mouth crooked into a grin. Waving his arms about, he began his explanation. "Whoever eats it gains the power of a god! Or… a devil…!"

A collective shudder went through his crew. Proof his tale was being spun well enough.

"But… it comes at a great cost! Whoever eats it… loses their ability to swim!" Usopp said, his face twisting into some sort of strange amalgamation of horror, pity and fear. His crew continued shivering, but Tamanigi seemed confused.

"Wait-, so, as long as you don't plan on going out to sea, it's harmless?" he asked, pushing up his glasses with the heel of his palm. Usopp frowned and furrowed his brows, his countenance becoming tentative.

"I mean, yeah? But! We're pirates! The sea beckons to us, and we must answer!" Usopp stated grandly, throwing an arm out for good measure. His crowd was enraptured. Eyes glittering and faces grinning, he knew he'd hit another home-run. One of his dear followers, the purple-haired Ninjin, raised his arm. "Yes, my dear follower, purple-haired Ninjin?"

"Eat it!" the boy said, to which the other two pumped their fists, equally hyped to see Usopp gain the power of a god! Or… a devil. Usopp was less hyped, the fruit in his hand growing heavy.

"H-, hey now-, I-," he stammered, glancing to the orb in his hand. He had no idea what it was. For all he knew, it could be a horribly mutated hedgehog deciding to hide its fangs and spikes for a nasty surprise. Or just a weird, poisonous fruit. Either one was equally likely. But the way his crew stared at him, starry-eyed and in awe… Could he really deny them? And he didn't want to lose his status and respect, so, with a mighty flourish, he put one hand to his chest, fingers spread - the picture of pride. "So it shall be! The mighty CAPTAAAAAIN Usopp shall be the first of the Usopp pirates to gain the mighty power of the God's fruit!"

And with that said, he popped the fruit in his mouth. Whole, unpeeled, black leaf and all. It was… it was nasty. His whole sensory apparatus was assaulted by a barrage of bitter, salty fruit flesh. Disgusting juices threatened to splutter up into his nose, and all he wanted to do was spit the horrid thing back out. Maybe even puke it out. And it hadn't even left the cavity of his mouth yet!

If he just spat it out now he might not have to deal with any poiso-, their eyes. Those damned eyes. Split between amusement and respect. He couldn't stop now! Tears streamed down his eyes, but he persisted. With one, single, mighty gulp, the whole pulpy thing was forced down his throat and into his stomach, where it would slumber, probably giving him not only a stomach ache but indigestion as well. Ahh, he was struck by his chronic can't-eat-weird-fruit-disease, but it was too late to blame that.

Cradling his stomach, he let his tongue hang out in an attempt to let the disgusting flavour evaporate or something. It didn't. If anything, the smell of the fruit lingered, stinging in his eyes and messing with his mind. An overly sensitive nose had its drawbacks, it seemed.

"You feel any different?" Piiman asked, his familiar grin never once failing him. The other two boys shared the very same sentiment, but their apple-faced friend had been the first to sputter it. Lacking any other means to express their agreement with him, they nodded frantically.

Usopp frowned. He didn't feel very different, did he? Then again, the poison would probably only set in once it had been sufficiently dissolved. God, was he going to die like this? At the hands of a fruit that didn't even have hands? Ahh, he wanted to collapse right then and there. Grumbling, he decided against just collapsing into a pile. Instead, he swayed back and forth like a particularly weak piece of seaweed.

"Whoa, look at that!" Tamanegi said, pointing at the forest around them. Forget Usopp wiggling like seaweed, the whole damn forest was like a reef of seaweed! All wiggling and moving, all in tune to Usopp's unchoreographed dance. The other members of the Usopp pirates, bar their captain, all stared in wonder and apprehension at the odd sight. It was only a matter of seconds before Tamanegi noticed how the dance of the trees related to their captain. "Usopp, are you doing this!?"

At this, the blurry, tired, unfocused slightly-older boy snapped back to reality (oops there goes gravity), his waking eyes darting between the three boys. Eventually, he recognized the meaning behind what his friend had said, and turned to look at the now-immobile trees.

"Doing what?" Usopp asked, frowning as he studied the trees. The rest of the crew studied the trees as well, however, a fair bit more confused. Tamanegi decided to take a stand for the three of them, stepping forwards towards their friend and leader. "Hey, what're you looking at me like that for?..."

"Usopp, you made the trees twirl."

"-No I didn't?"

"You did!"

"No I didn't!" and with that as katalyst, the trees once again hopped to life, this time to throw all the branches in the air, leaves on end, much like how Usopp's (rather impressive) mane of hair stood on end in… anger? Was he angry? No matter his emotional state, the movement of the trees had finally caught his eye, and at such a sudden movement, he threw himself down on the ground, cowering and sputtering. "Wh-, what is that!?"

The three underlings turned to each other and nodded. As the representative of the three, Tamanegi stepped forwards, glasses a bit lopsided, trying not to pay attention to how the trees shivered and shook as if they, too, were as afraid as their manipulator. For his own part, Tamanegi was wondering whether he should be amazed or afraid. It was definitely cool, but if Usopp didn't know how to use it, it might be a bit dangerous.

"Usopp, calm down" he commanded his supposed superior, who at once calmed down, although the anxiety, a staple for the growing boy, was still apparent in his eyes. Tamanegi gestured to the still somewhat moving forest as a whole. "You're doing this, and I think it's super cool, but if you don't calm down, I'll hit you over the head again!"

Usopp whimpered, but seemed to have calmed down somewhat. Realizing how silly he probably looked, being afraid and all, he quickly jumped back to his feet, once more towering over his younger companions.

"I-, I am calm! There is no way the great CAPTAAAAAIN Usopp-sama would be bothered by his own power! So-, pleasedon'thitmeagain," he said, the dichotomy of his confidence on clear display. Tamanegi smiled, and so did the other two.

"Alright!" the three shouted in unison, grins replacing their previous expressions.

"What can you do, hey, what can you do?"

"How well can you control the trees?"

"Is it just the trees or can you control anything?"

A flurry of questions was shot at point-blank range at the future king of snipers. He was a bit spooked, to be sure, but the attention was welcome.

"Hmmm, for the first one, I'm not sure! For the second one," with a gaze as anxious and uncertain as ever, he looked over at a branch, feeling it with his mind, commanding it to move, "I…" And it did. Like a snake or a rapidly growing vine, it reached out to Usopp, laying its branches bare. The second Usopp stopped willing it to do so, it stopped, once more turning solid. He let his fingers run over the freshly grown bark. It was soft. But sturdy. "Can. Yes, I can."

Even if this was all he could do, Usopp would have been happy. Gaining an ability he hadn't had yesterday was always a welcome surprise, but… was that all he could do? The third question remained unanswered, and its asker, Tamanegi, looked at him as Usopp would look at an especially interesting insect. Faced with such trust, such delighted questioning, he could only oblige him.

So, he turned his face skyward. The sky was blue and innocent, only a few white, fluffy clouds hanging over the horizon, lazily drifting with the winds as the clouds do. Wanderers of the sea in the sky. He reached out a hand, feeling them. Could they feel him? He didn't know. But as he commanded, they obeyed, freezing in place. His younger companions could not see this. They didn't know what he'd done. So, he'd make them see.

The clouds collected, the eight or nine there was being summoned to join one another, and above the small island part of the Gecko island, a large, ominous cloud formed. He hadn't meant for it to darken like that. Maybe he'd forced them to merge too quickly? Now, Usopp was no meteorologist, but even he knew dark clouds should be avoided at most times. It was spooky for a reason.

Even so, he couldn't help but stay. Feet rooted in place, he and his companions started at the swirling clouds. Round and round they went, their inexperienced master keeping them moving out of fear of anything else happening.

Elsewhere, outside of their view and knowledge, Syrup village was breaking into commotion. Some questioned their eyes, others barricaded their windows and pulled up the shutters. A few worried about their children, not yet home despite the storm brewing. Only one person worried about Usopp. A girl his age, she hoped he wasn't stuck in the woods in this weather. The winds were starting to pick up, the smell of rain looming heavily over the village.

Usopp let the clouds swirl. He knew the centrifugal force of the clouds would surely tear them apart, but he kept going. A drop of rain hit him in the face, and soon a downpour followed, the likes of which the small village had never seen before. The Usopp pirates stared at the spectacle as one would stare at a train crash in motion. Fear and awe mingled, they stood fast.

But he wasn't done. The clouds continued swirling, the sun long since blotted out, converting into a thin, spiral of concentrated clouds, situated just above the small group of youths causing the whole mess. The clouds continued, more and more, the very center of the spiral coming closer and closer to the ground, and soon enough, the concentrated horn-like appendage almost touched Usopp himself.

He reached his hands out, cupping them beneath the coal-black thing. The crackles of thunder, the prerequisite of lightning, sounded above, lighting up the inside of the pillar. But he didn't see that. The very tip of the tornado-like structure was just above his cupped hands. He could feel it. He controlled it, and he demanded it obey him. And obey it did.

A single droplet of pure water splashed into his hands. A smile lit his face, hesitant and true. Turning around, he presented the water to his friends, who were now more afraid than amazed. He saw the fear in their eyes. Thunder boomed above them. Close, closer than it should be.

Brought out of his own mind, his reigns dropped, he knew he'd lost control even before he turned around. Like a whip snapping against a commoner, the wind he'd previously controlled so well lashed out against him, sending him barreling to the ground once more. Pulling himself back up, he only barely noticed how Tamanegi stood in front of him. The clouds lit his face, raindrops smattering against it like a flurry of slaps. But he stood tall.

His mouth opened, ready to say something, something true…

Lightning struck.

The world lit up in pure white, thunder roared, heat unlike anything any of the Usopp pirates had ever felt rushed over them. Eyes and ears screamed out in pain, and so did they. But one of them didn't scream. No, one of them couldn't.

Once the light faded, the flashbang gone, the thunder once more distant, Usopp opened his eyes. Before him was a silhouette. Coal-black, almost invisible in the shadow of the storm. If the ground around it hadn't been scorched, embers still flying through the air, he might not have recognized him at all.

"TAMANEGI!" Usopp screamed, tumbling over his useless hands and feet to run over to his ashen friend. Behind him, the remaining members of the Usopp pirates said something of a similar nature, but Usopp couldn't hear it. His arms were clenched around his friend. He knew the body was probably warmer than anything he'd ever felt, but Usopp couldn't feel it. Maybe it was the loss, maybe it was his newfound powers, either way…

He held the body close. He screamed, and that was all the clouds needed. That was the one command they knew to obey. With only that, the entire storm, the swirling clouds, the biting rain, the crackle of lightning… All gone. The blue sky once gaped down at them. As if he'd just… pushed them away. As if it had just been an illusion. As if it hadn't happened at all.

The smouldering corpse in his arms proved otherwise.

He had commanded the trees. He had beckoned the skies. Ruled the clouds.

His chest filled with fear, worry, anxiety, hate, oh, seeting, loathing hate, and…

And hope.

Yes, if the world could bend to his will, so could its people, right? From depression to mania, his face lit up in a false, true smile. He could be lying to himself, he could be fooling himself. But it was worth a try. Behind him, two voices spoke his name, one in fear, one in hope. Two hands fell on his shoulders. He did not look at them.

Instead, he laid the burnt carcass back on the scorched ground. He could barely look at it, but he had to. He had to know what he needed to do. Inside first, and then outside. He began with the internal organs, reversing their state of being back to fresh and alive. The heart didn't beat, but that could wait. Blood was returned to the body, skin revitalized, muscles joined back together, and, finally… he gave the brain life one more.

As a final gesture, he restarted the heart.

With a gasp, the boy sat back up.

The four members of the Usopp pirates looked at each other. The only emotion in their eyes was fear.

He didn't want this.

This was not a gift, it was a curse. God's fruit… no, it was a Devil's fruit.

So, he sealed it away. Erasing the memory of all of his friends, all the memories of what had happened, including his own, including his own power. But before he happily drifted off into blissful ignorance, he gave himself a buffer. The ability to deal with swimming and water. That curse would not remain with him.

As long as nobody referred to him by the name of that cursed fruit he'd eaten, he'd be fine.

The Kami Kami no mi.

As long as nobody called him God Usopp…

He'd be fine.


	2. But Someone Did

But Somebody Did

Something had felt off ever since they'd left Dressrosa. Or, most specifically, ever since he'd heard his new nickname, which was way back during the whole Dressrosa ordeal, but still. As it was, something just felt… off. Sure, observation haki was his forte and all, but even so… he shouldn't be feeling the world this much. It was as if the clouds were whispering to him, the sea murmured secrets long forgotten, the sun hummed songs no longer sung…

And, somehow, it felt familiar. If he focused real hard, gave the sea a stern look, it seemed to stop in its tracks. Halt, stilling. But as soon as the thought passed, it was gone again, and the sea fell back into its normal chaos. At first, he sensibly considered hallucinations. He could touch the deck of the Thousand Sunny and feel it ripple underneath his fingertips, he could kill the grass and bring it all back again without a second, he could transform his Kabuto into a meowing kitten and back into his trusted weapon in a heartbeat.

Yeah, he'd eaten something weird. Either that, or he had gained the powers of God overnight. Hm. If he was God, that wasn't too bad, right? He wouldn't have to be afraid of anything, not fear his friends and people he cared for dying, all their plans would turn out alright… somehow, no matter how good it should have sounded to the reformed coward, it felt wrong. Like a vegetarian snacking on beef jerky, it should have felt good, but it only tasted wrong.

So, he left his place on the deck of the Sunny where he'd been taking a bit of a breather and headed over to the infirmary. He wasn't sure if Chopper would be there, but he probably would be. If he thought real hard, he knew he was there. Mixing something up.

And he was. When Usopp entered the infirmary, he indeed found his fuzzy little friend hunched over his workbench, trying to make liquid out of solid and gas out of liquid. Usopp wasn't too sure of what Chopper was trying to do, but he didn't notice him until he closed the door behind him. Once Usopp did this small action, Chopper's head swivelled around to face him.

Suitingly, his furry friend was wearing a little lab coat, but at seeing Usopp, he removed all attention from his experiment (or whatever it was) and instead gave his attention to Usopp. But before Usopp sat down, he peeked outside the infirmary, making sure nobody was around. He didn't know why he did this, he wasn't the kind to hide much from his Nakama (despite all the lying), so being so secretive was odd. Chopper noted this as well.

"Usopp, what's wrong?" he asked in that child-like voice of his. At hearing it, Usopp couldn't help but feel calmer, more relaxed. Chopper had that effect on people. Choosing a profession as a doctor truly suited him, as sharpshooting fitted Usopp. "Would you like to sit down?"

Usopp nodded and did as told. But he sat guarded, only barely actually sitting on the soft bed, legs wide and arms resting on them nervously. There was a tremble in his right leg, expressed in a quick tapping that worried Chopper. The reindeer in question was just about to question his friend about it when Usopp said his piece.

"Chopper, I think I may be going mad," Usopp stated grimly, eyes boring into Chopper, who in turn shifted his disposition to match Usopp's. But Usopp didn't let Chopper say anything, continuing without any input. "I see things. Things that can't exist. I hear it and I touch it-, I don't think I'm sane anymore. Bury my ashes outside my-,"

"You're not gonna die! Stop that! Gee, Usopp, I can't say I'm an expert on psychology," he twirls a pen in his hoof, "but, uh, what do you see?" Usopp looks down at the floor. Chopper doesn't follow his gaze and Usopp's sort of thankfully for it. The rings in the planks in the floor swivel and squirm, snakes trapped in Adamwood. He glanced back up at Chopper. He's ready to be told anything, fatal or otherwise.

"I think I'm God. Whatever I think I should see, I see-, it's-, it's a nightmare!"

Chopper regards his near-panicking patient for a moment, noting the black bags under his eyes, the way his left eye twitched, the tremble in his arms as he waved about, gesticulating to a room that must look very different to him. Chopper had never encountered a case like this personally, but… he knew what it was.

"You may be experiencing a brief psychotic episode," Chopper stated, hopping out of his chair to go grab some book or another from his little bookshelf. Third one from the left, second one from the bottom. Usopp hadn't even read the titles, didn't even know which one he was actually going for, but he knew it was that one. And it was.

Pulling it out, Chopper flipped through its pages, finally stopping by a certain part. Glancing through the page, he finally turned a wary eye to Usopp, who was looking up at a corner where he'd made a strawberry tapdance in three-dee. From Usopp's perspective, it was a little distraction that probably didn't exist. From Chopper's perspective, Usopp was staring off into space, giggling to himself.

"...Psychotic episode it is," he mumbled to himself, catching Usopp's attention. At seeing how confused his less-than-well friend seemed, Chopper decided an explanation was in order. "In other words, you're experiencing hallucinations of varying degrees, possibly also delusions if your 'I'm God' is anything to go by…"

Usopp nodded.

"So, none of what I'm seeing is real?"

"Yes. I don't have any antipsychotics on board, but if you'd like anaesthetics, I could administer those to keep you calm?" Chopper suggested, turning towards the medicinal cabinet. Usopp shook his head and stood up, feeling a bit better about it. Somehow, he felt better knowing he was hallucinating like crazy than to believe he was actually God.

Reaching out a hand, he let some of the sparse moisture in the air condense into a floating glob of water.

"Man, I really was scared there for a second! Glad this ain't happening, eh?" Usopp said as he stood up, leaving a baffled, wide-eyed Chopper to watch as the globule of water fell to the floor and splattered on impact. "See ya later, Chopper!"

"I-, uh-, wha-, U-, Usopp!" Chopper called out, but he was already out the door.

With a rising feeling of dread, the reindeer doctor burst out of the infirmary to follow his friend. Thankfully, Usopp hadn't gone far, apparently just having decided to plop down on the side of the grassy deck. Mouth slightly ajar, he stared up at the sky, eyes about as blank as they come. When Chopper followed his gaze, he found the clouds in the sky twirling and forming various shapes. A dog, a cat, a ladybug… Usopp chuckled at the sight.

Yup, Usopp was not doing fine. Either the both of them were having some sort of shared psychosis, or, the far more likely (as unlikely as it was), Usopp really was controlling the clouds. This didn't mean it had to be some sort of godly powers, considering what Chopper had seen so far, it was probably more of a water-controlling fruit. But, that did raise the question: how in the world had Usopp been able to swim all this time? Even worse, how did he only realize he had a devil fruit until now?

A theory started to form in Chopper's mind. His friend had eaten the Mizu-Mizu no mi, not too long ago, and only now realized he had eaten it at all. If this really was the case, all Chopper had to do was tell Usopp about it, make him not think he was hallucinating, and then maybe try and teach him how to control the powers. Mizu-Mizu no mi… that really shouldn't be something that existed, but anyhoo.

"Usopp, will you calm down for a second? I think you may have-,"

"Ah, Chopper, hi again! The clouds are dancing the polka!" Usopp interjected, pointing to a monkey-shaped cloud that was, indeed, dancing some sort of dance, although Chopper couldn't tell if it was a polka or otherwise. Regardless of what dance it was, seeing clouds dance was not something that could go uncommented upon.

"Whoa, cool!" Chopper said, his dread almost instantly replaced with admiration for the cool trick. But he soon realized his folly, not only as a doctor but as a friend. This was no time for fun and games. As good as it was that Usopp could control the clouds to such an extent, he still had yet to actually believe it was real. "No-, wait,"

"You think that's cool? Just watch this!" Usopp said competitively, his gaze wandering from the clouds onto something of a more solid nature. At first, it seemed the Thousand Sunny was the only thing not water as far as they could see, but just out of sight, right under the horizon, a small cliffside loomed. Chopper couldn't see it, but Usopp could feel it.

Lazy grin forming on his face, Usopp raised a hand toward the solid structure, an idea slowly forming in his head. Wordlessly, he urged it to dislodge from its seat, and that it did. At first, he let it hang in the air for a bit, before sending it flying at the ship at all-too-quick speeds.

Chopper blinked at the dot on the horizon that Usopp seemed to be staring at. He didn't have to look at it for long to notice it was growing at a pace so rapid he could feel his heart rate spike again. It was a giant, sharp boulder, speeding at the Sunny with speeds nearing Luffy's gear one.

"GAAAHHH!" Chopper screeched, and had he had more time, he might have stumbled across the deck, running circles out of pure fear. But he could just barely release a screech before the massive thing came to a sudden and complete stop before the Sunny. The surge of air that was created from the mass coming to such a sudden stop caused the whole ship to sway a fair bit, but Usopp didn't say a thing. Speaking of Usopp, he didn't seem to care at all about this! His smile was as lazy as ever, the only other emotion on his face being, well, amusement. Chopper could only come to one conclusion. "U-, Usopp, did you do this-?"

Usopp didn't answer, but instead gave his friend an elusive, slightly mischievous smile. Turning back to the large cliff, somewhat larger than Sunny, he let his thoughts run. Ideas of what he should conjure zooming by, until he finally settled on one that might be fun. Sure, he knew none of this was real, thankfully, but Chopper (a hallucination of Chopper?) almost seemed excited to find out what he'd make, so he'd do it if only to impress him.

"Luffy has always wanted a bronze statue, right?" he asked rhetorically, his grin twisting ever broader, but his eyes were not happy, far from. There was a mania to them, a knowledge that he might just be going mad. Chopper couldn't answer. He wanted to, he had to, but somewhere, he was curious as to what was about to happen. Maybe, just maybe, Usopp really was God?... No, that was ludicrous! Chopper grit his teeth shut.

Usopp extended his hand towards the large boulder, and with a single snap of his fingers, the entire thing was enveloped in bright, white light. Chopper tried futilely to shield his eyes from the harsh rays, but as soon as they erupted, they were gone. In their wake, they left a steaming, extensive hunk of shining, glittering bronze. Usopp grinned at it, eyes wide and hands trembling. Chopper felt the same.

"What in the-," Chopper gasped weakly. Somehow, the bronze, in its purity, was one of the most radiantly beautiful things he'd ever seen. Shimmering and shining, it beautifully reflected the light of the midday sun, blue, white and yellow mingling into an array of colours that at certain points and certain angels reflected into tiny rainbows. "It-, it's so pretty-,"

"I'm not done yet!" Usopp countered, his voice just raised one pitch above the usual. His words weren't unusual, but something in the way he said it put Chopper's fur on edge. But he didn't dare say anything. And, besides… who was to stop an artist on the verge of creating?

The first step of Usopp's artistic process was to actually sit up straight, back arched and arms raised in preparation. What followed could only be seen as a master at work. The wave on an arm rent the soft metal, large chunks simply dropping into the sea, never to be seen again. Soon, a general shape started forming. Humanoid in shape with a large metal cube as the base. Chopper should have realized what it was sooner.

This is where Usopp truly started working. Finer movements were required: the arch of a finger, softly trailing through the air to create the subtlest features. Chopper could do nothing but stare in awe. His fear and reprehension muted by a growing sense of respect and admiration for the sheer effort going into the sculpture.

It was Luffy. Holding a slab of meat (with bone included), wearing a billowing red cape, with a crown on top of his classic straw hat. Confidence and assuredness radiated from it, along with that beautiful light, which now took on a far more natural glow, the soft edges giving it a nice rippling feeling. Chopper glanced at his friend. Usopp was staring at it with no little amount of pride, and yet, he seemed displeased at the same time. The edges of his grin faltered, his crossed arms trembled just the slightest, and although his chest was puffed out, his back still didn't seem quite straight.

He knew it wouldn't last forever. It was just a hallucination. Sure, an elaborate and somewhat mindboggling one, to be sure, but a hallucination nonetheless. A sigh escaped his pursed lips. Chopper was glancing at him, as he'd been doing for a while now. Well, he said Chopper, but Usopp knew very well this was probably either a hallucination of Chopper, or some sort of lay-on hallucination, like Chopper really was there but the hallucination covered him. Or something. Man, maybe he should just ask for some anaesthetics to calm him down?

Hallucination or not, it's not like this humongous sculpture (that Luffy would totally love if he could see it) could stay on the ship, so there was only one thing to do with it. With a sigh like that of his soul escaping his body, he slowly let the sculpture of his dear captain fall into the depths below, inch by inch. He could vaguely see the face of his friend (hallucination?) staring wide-eyed at the slowly descending statue. Within seconds, the whole thing was underwater. Usopp let it fall the rest of the way to the bottom by itself.

Soul sucked out of him, he leaned back on the railing, back hunched and limbs limp as soggy noodles. What a cruel place this world was, where an artist couldn't even get recognition for their greatest work! Man, he didn't want to do anything anymore.

Slowly, he heard steps come closer. Soft, like the pitter-patter of rain. He didn't even need to look over to know it was Chopper. Heck, he didn't need his "powers" for it either, they were Nakama! He could just tell by the sound, as he could tell anybody. Soon enough, Chopper came to a stop just beside him. For a moment, neither said a word.

"Usopp, you're not hallucinating," Chopper said plainly. Usopp glanced up at him, forehead creased, lips shaped into a frown. "Whatever this is, however you gained this power… it's beyond anything I've ever seen, and I think-,"

"Hey, whoa! Look, Chopper-hallucination, I don't know what you're about to say, but the real world Chopper told me I'm just going coo-coo, and I trust him much more than I trust myself, so," Usopp smiled weirdly, brows furrowed nose wrinkled, "I'll be fine?"

They both knew he was lying. Chopper really didn't know what to do here. He should go get more people, maybe they could help Usopp somehow, maybe convince him this was real, but he didn't want to leave Usopp alone, either. But, then again, it didn't seem like Usopp had any plans on going anywhere. He seemed pretty content with just lying on deck, staring up at the clouds (which he may or may not be controlling). So, as long as Usopp didn't do anything too odd-,

But he did, and he was. Chopper noticed it the second he gave thought to check. Right behind the railing Usopp was resting his back against, something was happening in the sea. It seemed to be… rising. Somehow. Usopp himself didn't seem to notice it, but Chopper saw it clearly. It almost reminded Chopper of the first stages of the Knock-Up Stream, both in size and general look. Considering what had happened to Blackbeard's weird raft-ship thing, not being either right on top of it or as far away from it as possible was not a good thing. Not for the ship, not for the crew.

Somehow, something told Chopper that no matter what he did, Usopp would not realize he was causing this. With no other choice, he ran for the door parallel to the one leading to the infirmary, namely the one leading to the Lounge. Hopefully, somebody might be there, somebody who could help him make Usopp realize what was actually happening.

Inside the lounge, he found three people: Nami, Luffy and Brook. Each one was enraptured in a specific task: Luffy had pressed his face against the aquarium tank, Nami seemed to be counting the budget for the week, and Brook was playing some light, airy composition as a backdrop to the quaint scene. It really wasn't the sort of scene one would want to disrupt, especially not when considering how worked-up Nami could get if you stopped her from doing anything money-related, but this was an emergency!

"Everybody, we have to get on deck, now!" he shouted, wincing a bit at how angry Nami got. Luffy, on the other hand, simply seemed innocently curious about what new adventure could be unravelling, a sentiment Brook seemed to share. Chopper wished he had the time to explain exactly what was going on. "Quickly! Try to keep Usopp calm, I'll go get the others!"

With that, the three inside scrambled to their feet, ready to face whatever was outside the door. Being able to go from taxes to life-or-death combat was a prerequisite for being a straw hat pirate, but even so, they did not expect the battle in question to be so… non-existent.

Out on the deck, they found neither marine nor pirates, but instead, a high-looking Usopp staring up at nothing, barely even noticing their entrance onto the deck. The very most he did was roll his eyes over to gaze at them and lift a hand in greeting. That was all. But it wasn't him (although he was acting quite out of character) that truly caught their eyes, no, it was the rising pillar of water just behind him.

"WHAT IS THAT!?" Luffy shouted, pointing at the swelling body of water. It almost seemed like the water would fall away to reveal a huge sea king or something at any moment, but that never happened. Instead, it simply continued rising. "Whooooa, so cool!"

"Oh my! Dear me, what might that be?" Brook commented in the same vein as Luffy. However, unlike Luffy, he could actually think of some reason this might be happening. It could be related to the large splash that rocked the boat (rock the boat baby) mere minutes ago, but, even more likely, it had something to do with Usopp. After all, Chopper had told them to keep Usopp calm. Sure, he looked about as calm as a dolphin high on pufferfish toxins, but he might not actually be feeling calm at all. "Usopp, are you quite alright?"

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine! Chopper, the real one, said I was having some sort of psychotic episode. Don't worry about it," Usopp slurred back, waving a hand dismissively. Behind him, the large, still rising stream of water almost seemed to move as well, but it was hard to tell.

"Psychosis?! Usopp, are you sure that's what Chopper told you?" Nami asked, her face the very picture of exasperation. Usopp seemed a bit apprehensive at the sudden rise in her voice, cocking an eyebrow at it. Nonetheless, he answered her question with a simple nod.

"Hmm? Nami, what's a pickle ship?" Luffy asked, rather sensibly so.

"Aah, it means I see a bunch of weird stuff that isn't really here, such as," with a simple wave of his hand, the grass just underneath his arm briefly turned into small, gleeful snakes, fastened to the deck by their tails. All three people on deck, Usopp not included, gasped at the display.

"WHOAA! Awesome, what is that?" Luffy exclaimed, happily bouncing over to squat beside Usopp, who looked at him with doubtful, untrusting eyes. A bright, innocent smile met him. The snakes in the grass hissed happily, and with a wave of Usopp's hand, they were gone again, dead as soon as they had lived. Usopp turned to the other two on deck.

"Ah, I see, so you're also hallucinations?" he stated more than asked, his right hand shooting up to rub his furry chin as he squinted at them. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Luffy leaning his head with a blank, confused stare. A very Luffy-esque thing to do, for a hallucination.

"Usopp, you're not making much sense. I'm quite sure I'm real, although it may not seem like I should be alive at all, yohohoho!" Brook said, clasping his violin in one bony hand and cane in the other. "I believe what you may need is some music to soothe your soul!"

With that, Brook brought the violin up to his face pinched it in between his chin and shoulder, and played an unfamiliar tune. If Usopp had been in a better state of mind, he might have recognized how, well, how he didn't recognize the song played. Creative he may be, he'd never had much of a talent for singing, beyond his silk-smooth voice, that is. But alas, this minor fact, this evidence against his world-view, slipped right by him.

"What? No, I don't want to hear any music, at least not from some knock-off hallucination of my friend!" Usopp said, his frown turning into a bitter scowl. He loved Brook's music as much as anybody (who didn't?) but this felt more like a mockery than something to soothe his frayed nerves. And yet, Brook did not stop playing. If anything, the song he played only grew louder, at least in Usopp's ears. "STOP IT!"

Clutching his ears, Usopp hunched over fully, almost balling himself up. But there wasn't anything to guard him against any longer. The music had stopped. From beside him, he could hear Luffy make noises of disbelief, and Nami gasped. He peeked an eye open, eye trailing over to where Brook - or his hallucination of him - had been.

Brook was still there, to be sure, but… not only was he silent as the grave, but he was also completely immobile, face (or lack thereof) frozen mid-verse. It was an eerie sight, and Nami finally realized what it meant. No, what Chopper had meant when he said to keep Usopp calm.

Somehow, sometime, Usopp had changed. Maybe not much in personality, but… in this way. He could create life, freeze a person in place, and if her hypothesis was right… make the sea rise, albeit unconsciously. Something was very wrong here, and Usopp was at the centre of it all.

"Whoa, Usopp, what did you do!?" Luffy asked, his face a mixture of excitement and fear. It was odd for the boy to be unable to focus on one single emotion, it almost seemed impossible for him to have conflicting feelings, and yet, here he was.

Usopp glanced over at him, face blank, yet somehow even more terrified than Luffy himself.

"I-, I don't know! I'll-, I'll try to undo, it, okay-?" Usopp answered, turning his attention from his captain and onto his frozen-stiff crewmate. He had no idea what he'd done, none whatsoever. This felt familiar though, something happening despite him not trying to make it happen. But he couldn't remember. It didn't matter! Far more important now was getting Brook back in motion. Or his hallucination of Brook. Whatever.

His usual plan when dealing with undoing something weird he'd done, be it an invention that hadn't quite panned outright or some plan that had failed, would be to reverse-engineer it. But he didn't even know where to start with Brook. It didn't feel like he was trying to keep him in place somehow or like he'd stopped time around him or anything…

With nothing more concrete to do, Usopp slowly heaved himself up on two legs and stumbled over to his immobile friend. He let his fingers run over the fabric and the bones. The problem seemed to lie in that his bones were completely immobile, though his clothes and violin were not. Unable to think of any strategy to loosening him through regular means, Usopp finally decided that the only way to do this was by doing something akin to what he'd done to stop him in the first place.

He could feel Luffy and Nami's gazes drilling into his back, one out of fear and the other out of curiosity, and he started wondering if it'd really be such a great idea. Then again, he didn't have a choice, and it's not like they were really there to begin with. Probably.

"MOVE!" Usopp shouted, waving his arms up and down at his muted friend.

Nothing. He glanced at the other two people present, hoping his hallucinations weren't programmed with "embarrassment" and "second-hand shame". Oh no. They were. It would almost have been funny if he wasn't feeling the whole "first-hand shame" so strongly.

Riling himself up to scream something about how he didn't know how any of this worked as retaliation, he was sadly interrupted by yet another door slamming open, revealing Chopper, Franky and Sanji. Chopper seemed about as stressed and terrified as he'd been earlier (as Usopp also felt), but both Franky and Sanji seemed more confused than anything, although they were both just a little too cool to outright show it.

"Yo, Longnose bro, what's goin' on?" Franky asked sensibly, bursting onto the deck with as much vigour as the cyborg could muster. Along the way, it seemed Chopper had informed both Franky and Sanji of the situation, although a few details must have been spared, considering that neither actually knew what was going on. Then again, according to the expert opinion of Usopp, nothing was happening. Nothing at all.

"Um, I'm having a-,"

"NO YOU'RE NOT!" both Nami and Chopper screamed, and at realizing they both understood the situation, they shot each other sympathetic glances. Usopp replied with a violent shiver, the large, still growing wave of water also shivering. One would be stupid not to make the connection.

"What is that!?" Sanji noted, the rest of the situation sort of falling into the background to him as he pointed at the rising water. The rest of the deck stared at him as if he'd said the sky was blue. The only one not looking at him in that manner was Franky, whose attention had been pulled to the unnatural occurrence in question.

"WHAT THE HECK!?" he exclaimed, somehow getting even more judgemental gazes than Sanji did.

"That isn't important! Keep Usopp calm, I'll go get Robin and Zoro!" Chopper said before running off, leaving two-thirds of the straw hat pirates to stare at Usopp, two of them wondering what the matter was and two wondering is Usopp could actually make Brook not-frozen. Usopp himself was preoccupied with that very last sentiment as well.

"So, wait, what's actually going on?" Sanji asked, turning to the other two people (Usopp barred) who might know what was happening, namely Nami and Luffy.

"Usopp froze Brook in place and is trying to fix him," Luffy explained blankly, pointing to where the situation was taking place. And, sure enough, Usopp seemed to be studying the completely still skeleton with that sort of frenzied interest he got when he was trying to make some new invention work.

"Longnose bro did WHAT!?" Franky asked waving his arms questioningly. Nami opened her mouth to try and explain just a little bit of what was actually happening, but the man of the hour took the spotlight instead.

"I DIDN't MEAN TO!" he shouted, instinctively hitting the nearest member of the straw hats (it was usually Luffy since he usually garnered his (and Nami's) frustration), which in this case happened to be Brook. Fist flying into his jaw, the eerily tall skeleton musician flew through the air for a few seconds before ending his brief airborne journey came to an end when he slammed into a wall.

"Yohoho, that was quite scary, Usopp! I thought my heart was gonna stop, ah, but I don't have a heart! Yohohoho, skull joke!" Brook said as he pulled himself up from where he'd collapsed and wandered back to the centre of the deck. Violence really does solve everything, huh?

"Ahhh, so that was it, huh," Usopp sighed, eyes not leaving the grassy deck as he stumbled back to where he'd been sitting just minutes before. Without another word to the people surrounding him, he crumpled down into a heap on the floor. He'd really have loved to work on some invention, but doing so while feeling this strange was probably not a good idea. Luckily, he didn't need to do anything for things to happen as they should.

Yet another door slammed open, and Chopper emerged with Robin in tow, who took the scene in with a neutral, yet clearly concerned expression. Those large, blue eyes of her took the situation in its entirety, the confusion, the fear, the anxiety, the slight mania…

"Oh, my," she said, her grasp on the situation instantly exceeding that of Sanji or Franky. Chopper nodded at her evaluation and bolted away to go get Zoro. Robin joined the rest over on the deck.

For a minute or so, Usopp was haunted by hallucinations of his friends just kinda staring at him, as if waiting for the Chopper hallucination to return. At some point, Nami had told Franky and Sanji about what she'd understood. Luffy, for his part, just kind of sat right next to Usopp, not talking to him but also never letting him out of his sight. It would have flattered Usopp if he hadn't known it wasn't really Luffy at all.

After this minute had passed, Chopper finally returned with a mildly annoyed Zoro just behind him, and there they all were. Unprompted, Chopper stepped forwards, still puffing a little, to explain the situation to anybody who hadn't caught on yet. The crew listened in silence, Usopp just sort of staring at the whole ordeal. Honestly, this was a bit meta. Hearing a hallucination of his friend convincing his other hallucination-friends that he was, in fact, not hallucinating was just one step beyond what he thought he'd ever see.

After the whole explanation was done and over, the whole group stared at him once more. Before Usopp could ask them what the heck they wanted, he felt someone poke him on the shoulder.

"Yo, Usopp," his captain said, face about as neutral as it seldom was. There was not a shadow of seriousness, and yet, he seemed a bit more muted than normal.

"Yeah, Luffy?" Usopp answered, hoping the real-life version of himself wasn't greeting a swash bucket or something odd like that. His captain studied him closely, eyes squinting shut as he rubbed his cheek. Apparently, Luffy was doing the one thing he wasn't known for doing: thinking. "What is-?"

"You're not hallucinating. What are you, blind?" Luffy asked, and Usopp might have taken it wrong if there was even an ounce of entertainment in his voice. But, no. Luffy wasn't smiling, and certainly not laughing. Somehow, he was serious. The rest of the deck had grown silent.

"Y-, yes I am-,"

"No, you're not. We're really here, and you're really doing mystery stuff 'cuz you ate a mystery fruit," Luffy stated plainly. Plain as day. Really, Usopp should have been able to accept it. He could feel the truth, how they were really there, hell, he could even feel in himself how there was a memory, buried so deep it might as well not exist at all, a memory of him gaining power no man should hold.

"That-," Usopp said, but he knew there was nothing he could say that could change Luffy's mind. Real Luffy or not, changing his mind was just not something you did. That is… unless he could prove it. Whatever this power was, whatever was happening, some things might just not be quite possible just like that. Some things could not be done with the snap of a finger. Such as… making dreams come true. "Watch this…"

He snapped his finger. All eight other members stared at him, only glancing away to look at the gradually rising wave behind him. It had grown larger than the Sunny now, both in width and height. Other than that… nothing had changed. Nobody felt any different, the air was as salty as always, and confusion reigned.

"-With that, you are now the strongest swordsman in the world," Usopp said in a low, whispering voice. Everyone heard it, and everyone turned to Zoro, eyes filled with confusion and no little amount of fear. Zoro himself was the most flabbergasted of them all, his face twisting in response: his nose scrunching up, eyebrows furrowing, frown deepening.

"What's that supposed to mean, you basta-,"

"It means-," a small, uncomfortable smile settled on his face, "that any swordsman stronger than you is gone."

"Wha-,"

Usopp leaned back, that odd smile of his trembling ever so slightly, as if he didn't want to say what he did, as if he wished it to be lies. But it wasn't.

"And, as a result of them being gone, Mihawk, Fujitori, anybody who could beat you in a one-on-one battle."

It might have been funny, had Chopper not explained what kind of state Usopp was in. If Usopp said that's what had happened… then that was the case. Zoro opened his mouth to shout, to tell him to undo whatever he just did, but the words died on his lips, stillborn. Usopp turned to the wide-eyed Nami.

"And for you," a snap of his fingers materialized a large, rolled up piece of parchment, "a map of the world. Every single island that exists is recorded in there." Nami stared down at the map, her fingers trembling. Curiosity scratched at her insides, frantically telling her to just open it up, just to take a little peek at what the world truly was like. But she was far too rational to give in to such temptations. Looking up, she noticed how Usopp almost seemed disappointed she didn't open it up. Behind the hysteria and anxiety, that is.

"Usopp, this is-,"

"And for Sanji…" Usopp glanced at the cook of the crew, who was practically chewing on his cigarette.

"Usopp, you wouldn't dare-,"

A snap proved otherwise.

In his hands, Sanji found a small, Log Pose. Or, rather, an Eternal Pose. And the place it pointed to was…

"The All Blue. I could probably just have teleported you there right this second, but that would probably spook you a bit too much, hallucination-Sanji," Usopp explained, waving his hand dismissively. The wave behind him grew bigger with each "gift" he bestowed. "Now, Chopper."

The half-human reindeer, the most shell-shocked out of all of them, flinched harshly at his name being called out.

"M-, Me?!" he stammered, actively repressing his old urge to skitter behind something to hide. The fact that Usopp of all people had set off this urge in him unsettled him even more than the not-quite-himself Usopp did. The man in question smiled at him, and with no further questions asked, he snapped his fingers.

A small vial appeared in his hooves. Inside it was a single, nondescript pill. Red and white in colour, filled with what seemed like small, white beads, shimmering like orbs of crystal. The only other things in there was a small piece of paper, covered on both sides with black, scratchy text.

"That," Usopp pointed one finger at the vial, "is a true cure-all. There a recipe in it, too. How does it work? Well, it's really quite simple! It simply reverts the body of the patient to the state before they fell ill. This includes memory and stuff so there will be some memory loss. Eh? What about inherited diseases? Well, in that case, it rewrites their entire DNA structure, so they won't really be the same person at all, but who cares? No disease, heheheh!"

Chopper stared at it as a drowning man might stare at the surface. This wasn't how he wanted to receive it, to be sure, but if he could manufacture it, distribute it… how many lives could be saved? How many people had already died because he hadn't yet done that? His instincts as a man clashed with his instincts as a doctor. As a man, as a person with dreams and a need to fulfil them, he simply couldn't allow himself such a cheap victory. As a doctor…

A snap brought him out of his thoughts. He only barely noticed how a thick, heavy tome appeared in Robin's tender hands. The cover was black and faded in colour, clearly bound in leather, old as true books are.

"I'm sure you know what that little novel records. And, as for Franky…" Usopp hummed for a moment before snapping his fingers one more.

Franky hadn't said a thing for a while now. None of this was super, none of it at all. Not how long nose bro was acting, not how anybody else was acting, either. Not how he was acting. He hadn't even heard what long nose bro had said, but he felt something appear in his large, robotic hands. It was a small, yellowish bottle, containing not liquid but instead a ship. A small, model ship, about as plain as they come.

"If you break that bottle, the ship will pop out and become this huuuuuge ship that just can't be sunk. No matter what happens, it'll always survive, so… you can just sail it wherever," Usopp explained. Beside him, Luffy trembled, but he didn't notice that. Behind him, the wave had risen a good 50 meters into the air, but he didn't notice that, either. He turned to Brook, whose empty eye-sockets somehow conveyed the very same emotion that everybody else was.

"I know what you want alright," Usopp said with a mischievous grin (one of the few smiles he'd flashed that day that hadn't seemed off on his face), and Brook could only barely realize it was his turn to be "blessed" before a snap once more rung out.

And, in his bony hand, he found…

A pair of panties.

Brook might actually have been the one person on that whole boat who liked receiving his gift.

Usopp furrowed his brows and rubbed his chin. He'd forgotten someone, hadn't he? Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook… himself not counted, there was somebody left. Oh, yes, of course! How could he have forgotten his dear captain!

"And now, Lu-,"

A powerful fist connected with the side of his face, sending him tumbling at speeds far greater than a human was supposed to go. The raised bit of sea collapsed where it stood, simply returning to the depths without even causing a ripple around it. With no resistance of any sort, his body skidded across the lawn before quickly meeting a railing, where he simply proceeded to phase through it, leaving not a scratch on it. However, neither did he fall into the sea, no, he tumbled on top of absolutely nothing, eventually coming to a stop a fair way from the ship.

He rose much like he had all those years ago, the last time he had been hit by his captain, or, what he had hoped to be the last time he had been hit by his captain. His gaze was stern as he took in the sight on deck. At some point, Nami must have gasped, as her hands were clutching her mouth in shock. The rest were equally torn between worry and understanding. Quite a few were happy Luffy had stepped up.

None of them let go of their gifts.

Usopp returned to the deck, where he faced his appalled captain. This was all familiar. Memories of his moonlit battle at Water-7 flashed through Usopp's mind, but he didn't want to linger on them. They were nothing he wanted to remember. This was all so surreal. Gaining unprecedented power, the scenery being familiar yet off-key, experiencing a strange retelling of an old story he'd lived through before.

Maybe this wasn't a hallucination at all.

Maybe this was a dream.

"TAKE THEM BACK!" Luffy cried, pointing to the various objects the crew were carrying. Usopp stared back, his gaze equally as fierce. Dream it was, dream it would be. He waved his hand, and all objects, panties included, simply turned to ash. The only one against this development was Brook, but he knew it wasn't his place to complain. Luffy crossed his arms.

"There, gone. In Zoro's case, they're back. Happy now? Your dreams so close, and now further away than ever?" Usopp said. He was lying. To them, to himself. He was playing a character, wearing a mask, letting the situation play out. He was a storyteller, he knew the role of villain all too well. Every good story needed one, and here he was. It would be perfect. A manic smile rose on his face, as delirious as it was untrue. His arms rose, and with them, the sea around them rose as well. Ten metres, a hundred meters, the waves rose and rose, ready to consume the Sunny, drown everyone aboard and leave nothing in its wake.

This wasn't what he wanted, but he knew it was the turn the story was supposed to take. It was what needed to be done. What he had to-,

A little prick roused him from his thoughts.

Beside him, standing as small as he always had him, Chopper stood, a syringe in his hoof. His expression was tight and pitying.

Huh? What was this?

A small trickle of blood escaped his body, right where the prick he'd felt.

Something weird was in his body, something that wasn't supposed to be there. He could purge it with a thought, but, somehow… He kind of just wanted to sleep.

Slumber seduced him, and with no more words, no more ideas, no more fright, he passed out.

The seas collapsed, but the Sunny could take the waves. Franky was the one to carry Usopp's small, tender body into the infirmary. It was decided that Chopper would watch over him together with one other crewmate, who would be switched every ten minutes.

They'd get through this, together.

As Nakama.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, um, yo! Kind of a cliffhanger there, eh? Yeah, um, sorry about that, I had planned to make this a multi-chapter kinda thing but lost motivation due to writing yet another Usopp-centered thing. Man, I love him. Favourite character. A good boy.
> 
> Anyhoo, depending on how y'all react to this and all, I might maybe write another chapter. Maybe. Possibly. 
> 
> We'll see! Until then, thank you for reading!
> 
> No I don't have anything better to do with my life what are you on about


	3. The Dawn of a New Era

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, uh. Thanks to that one Portuguese person who commented and reminded me that I had, in fact, written both an outline and half of this chapter already. The resulting writing-binge that lasted until now (3:48) was a result of my own... something. No idea what. Anyhoo, here it is. I spent too long writing it. I keep feeling like it'd never live up to the first part, but how should I know? I still kind of don't intend for this to be a series but eH
> 
> With that said, enjoy! Comment and I might continue it! Or I'll just die idk

Dreamless, empty slumber. Bereft of past or future, composed only of the present void. 

This was how Usopp slept. The drugs, whatever drugs Chopper had injected him with, did their job alright, but part of this, part of why he slept not three or four hours but instead a full day and a full night, was his own doing. A self-made coma, sleep breaching the stillness of death.

Luffy and Chopper shared an anxious glance. 

It wasn’t often that the boy captain worried like this. Only when his Nakama were involved did he ever grow this jittery. Before they’d gotten to Drum island, when Nami had gotten sick, he’d been feeling this way. Back then, he’d also been sat like this, hunched over the infirmary bed, watching as his Nakama tossed and turned and gasped and groaned. 

That was the most obvious difference between when Nami had gotten sick and… this. 

Usopp wasn’t moving. 

And he was a notorious bed-tosser, too, often casting off his covers or falling into Luffy’s hammock or waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. But here? Not so much. Sometimes, every two or three hours, something happened. One time, Usopp’s eyes flared open, revealing the orbs to be completely black in colour. And then, they’d close, and he’d be alright. 

Another time, Luffy and Chopper had been called out on board since a storm was brewing, but once they came outside and saw the blackness of it all, it simply… disappeared. The clouds had been dispelled, gone as soon as they arrived. No one on deck could know if Usopp had caused them to appear, or if he made them disappear. 

Originally, it hadn’t been the plan for Chopper and Luffy to constantly be in the infirmary to keep an eye on Usopp, they had planned for there to be rotations, but…

Luffy, for once, abused his captain status. He couldn’t bear not staying by Usopp’s side, and the others could see this. They allowed for it, but… During the entire day and night that Usopp slept, they all kept close, most staying out on the grassy deck. Sanji would wander off at times to whip up something fast and warm for them to eat, but otherwise, they didn’t move at all. 

When the clock hit ten, when a full day and night had passed, Usopp woke up. 

Slowly, he pried open his eyes, finally coming to focus on the ceiling of the infirmary. His body felt heavy and light and bad. Maybe that was why he was in the infirmary? There shouldn’t be any other reason he could think of, so… And then he noticed how Luffy and Chopper were both looking at him, gazes wary and focused and caring all at once. 

Usopp sat up. His head felt fuzzy and he couldn’t remember what he dreamt, but when he thought about what happened before he fell asleep… Yeah, okay, scratch that, he could remember what he dreamt. All too well. 

A smile rose to his face, the kind you’d have after you almost got run over by a car. “Guys, you won’t believe what I drea-,” and that was about as much he could say before he realized what was up.

Being in the infirmary was one thing, he could have slipped in the shower and that was why his head felt all fuzzy, but… He knew it from the look in their eyes. Would Luffy be serious like this if what he thought, no, what he knew was the truth was anything but that? As much as he wanted to deny it, shake it all off and pretend that everything he did was but a dream and nothing more, he knew it wasn’t. He could feel it. He could feel their calm, yet ready heartbeats, and his own, rapidly quickening heartbeat, like that of a rising crescendo, pounding in his ears.

“Um, Usopp, could you quiet down-?” Chopper asked timidly, clasping his hooves over his ears. Realization hit Usopp like a cannonball. Not just that the pounding of his heart wasn’t only in his head, but also that everything else, everything he had done… 

It had happened. 

His heart stopped beating. 

Before Chopper could realize that Usopp no longer had a heartbeat, the sniper collapsed from where he’d sat, became an amorphous blob of Usopp-liquid, slipped down on the adamswood floor and rematerialized into Usopp, this time posed in a flawless dogeza, face pressed so hard into the floor that his nose bent weirdly. “-FORGIVE ME!!!”

Luffy stared down at him, eyes hard and cold. 

“I-, I know I can’t make up for it, I know I’m being pathetic, but-, please, forgive me!!” Usopp bellowed, his voice unnaturally loud, in the way you’d think a king would shout his commands at the commons. Although, at the moment, his visage was nowhere near as lofty as a king. Crouched low, he kissed the floor, his entire body shivering, ready to receive a strike or a long-winded speech about what a terrible crime he had committed, or how he’d betrayed the crew, or-,,

Luffy stood up. Grabbed Usopp by the shoulders, and pulled him up into a hug. “-I’ve already forgiven you. But you better not do it again, idiot!”

For a few seconds, Usopp couldn’t process what had just happened. Had he been… forgiven?... For all he did? For betraying his captain?... “A-, are you sure?...”

His voice was small, the squeak of a church-mouse. Luffy nodded. 

Usopp returned the hug. He knew he could hold on tight. Luffy was made of rubber, he could take a tight hug. 

And then Usopp felt another prick in his leg. He almost panicked, thinking he was about to head into deep sleep again when Chopper alleviated all such worries. “Don’t worry, Usopp! It’s just a little sedative to keep you calm, okay?”

Yeah, okay, he probably needed something like that. If he’d gotten one of those yesterday, then maybe… No, let’s not think about that! The past is the past, and that’s all it needed to be!

“Um, the others, are they-?” Usopp stuttered, glancing towards the door. 

Luffy smiled warmly. “They’re just outside. Let’s go!” And with that, Usopp was unceremoniously dragged outside, his mind panicking at the mere idea of looking them in the eye after what he did. Chopper trailed behind them with a worried expression on his face. The door burst open, and they emerged outside. Everybody was just sort of sitting around. 

Zoro was napping, Nami was sitting next to Robin, Sanji was writing in a book labelled “Recipes” (real creative there), Robin was playing with a small green snake (apparently Usopp had forgotten one, but going by how delighted Robin seemed, they weren’t getting rid of this one), Franky was peeking over Sanji’s shoulder to read the recipes, and Brook was fiddling a soothing melody for everyone to listen to. It was a charming moment, really, one where everybody was just hanging around each other without any goal.

Had… how long had they waited for? All for him? He, who betrayed them, taunted them, threatened to sink the Sunny?...

Feelings welled up inside Usopp’s heart and he felt his legs growing weak. One moment he was standing, and the next, he dropped to his knees, and one might have considered it a dogeza, had it not been more of a “broke-down-crying-and-balled-himself-up-to-hide-the-shame” kind of situation. In the midst of this, he simply couldn’t help but croak out a few hoarse apologies, which were fervently accepted by all aboard.

Even so, even with all his fears denied, he couldn’t help but cry his eyes out. Tears flooded from his eyes like waterfalls.

Actually, that wasn’t a simile. A flood of water came from his eyes, spreading across the grassy deck, drowning the grass without being sufficiently absorbed into it. He couldn’t stop crying. Could barely even realize a powerful, metallic hand had been placed upon his back. 

“Hey, Longnose-bro, take it down a notch! Cool it!” Franky said, patting his back lightly but firmly. Somehow, this got through to him, and Usopp forced himself to stop his incessant crying, but not without a fair few seconds of sniffling and snivelling. Looking back up, Usopp noticed unhappily how the deck was perfectly soaked, along with no small amount of feet and pants. He felt like crying again. Instead, he tried waving his hand, and with just that, all the saltwater on deck disappeared, un-soaking clothes and un-drowning the little green snake. 

His powers were, indeed, still there. Damn it all. 

Franky patted him on the back and went back over to sit. Once Luffy and Chopper also sat, everybody was on deck, and everybody was ready to talk. 

Nami cleared her throat. “We thought about discussing this without you, making a plan and all, but…” she smiled wryly, “it wouldn’t be fair. We’re Nakama, and… and Nakama don’t go behind each other’s backs.”

Usopp stared for a moment, mouth hanging open. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes again.

“O-, oi oi oi, steel your heart, Longnose-bro!” Franky said encouragingly, and it actually seemed to help, since Usopp was able to stop himself from flooding the deck again. 

Nami waited a second before continuing, just to make sure Usopp was alright. He nodded at her, which was all she needed. “-First of all, the first order of business… We really need to know exactly what this power is. Is it a Logia? Or a Paramecia? Or is it even a Devil Fruit at all?” Nami said, voicing the thoughts of almost everyone on deck. Usopp raised his hand. “-Yes, Usopp?”

“Um, yeah, I… I’m pretty sure it’s a fruit? I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I remember eating a weird fruit once. I might have repressed the memory or something-?” He scratched his head in thought. “-Technically speaking, I could probably reconstruct the memory, but… If I did this to myself, I probably did it for my own good, right?”

A subdued chorus of affirmation ran through the collected group. The past should remain the past.

A beat passed, and then Chopper raised his hoof. “-Yes, Chopper?” Nami said, acting as the chairman of the meeting. 

He clopped his hooves together a bit, shooting a nervous glance at the even nervous-er Usopp. “Um. Could we have it so Usopp can’t, well, I don’t mean to be mean, but can we put restrictions on his, um, ‘power’?...” If Chopper thought that Usopp would take this the wrong way, he was sorely mistaken.

“I completely agree. This is…” He shook his head decisively. “-It’s not like I want it! I’d rather this all never happened, so I’ll gladly be banned from using it,” he said, nodding broadly to Chopper, who beamed at having his friend agree so happily. 

Nami clapped her hands at once, bringing the attention back to her. “-Alright, so, Usopp?” The man in question leaned his head at the sudden addressal. “No using your powers just whenever. Keep it to a minimum. Unless Luffy or one of us allows you to, don’t do anything.”

Usopp nodded at the command. Yeah, he could do that. 

And then, a thought struck him. A memory, perhaps, of what had happened yesterday. All those terrible ideas and terrible things aside, there was one thing he did that he was actually proud of. Something he knew someone aboard would like to see.

“-Hold on! Stop the ship!!” he suddenly cried, jumping to his feet. Several confused gazes met his wide eyes, but he only focused in on Chopper’s. “Chopper! Remember when I made that bronze statue of Luffy??”

Chopper furrowed his brows for a moment before they shot up in realization, his eyes glittering at the mere thought of the work of art Usopp had made while in a half-lucid state. “Oh yeah!! Nami, we’ve gotta turn around!”

This piqued Luffy’s interest. “-A bronze statue? Of me??”

“Oh no,” Nami said, already understanding what direction this conversation was headed in. “We are NOT turning around to go pick up a-, a bronze statue you made.” Usopp opened his mouth to say something. “And before you so much as bring it up, no, I am NOT allowing you to use your powers to grab it.”

“B-, but Nami! Bronze statue!!” Luffy pleaded futilely. It didn’t work. She stood fast, and when Nami took a stand, no pirate could deny her. Or marine, for that matter. 

A short put-down later and the meeting continued. 

Crossing her arms, Nami glanced one-eyed at the blue-and-yellow Usopp and Luffy. At least Usopp could still be bruised. Whether this was a good or bad thing was a very good question, one that Nami didn’t want to think about.

“-But, before we put down any actual rules or discuss this any deeply, we’re going to need to know the actual extent of your power.” Usopp tilted his head. “In other words, you’ll need to test a few things. Try not to do any lasting damage, alright?” Nami turned to Usopp, whose bruising had disappeared in a flash, most likely an unconscious move. But he nodded, so he could probably be trusted. Probably. 

Nami stood up, and handed Luffy a hastily scribbled note containing things to be tested. “-Now, I’ve got some budgets to untie. Keep an eye on him, will ya?”

With that, the meeting was finished. Franky said he had been in the middle of repairing the Mini-Merry so he was off to finish that, and Sanji went off to get started on the lunch. Brook followed Sanji to keep him entertained with some light tunes, leaving Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, Robin and Usopp on deck. Counting Zoro as one of them might have been a bit odd since he was just sitting against the railing napping, but it was clear that this was as much his duty as a Nakama as that of a first mate. Likewise, it was obvious why Luffy stayed. Not only was he the physically toughest, therefore able to stand (most) whatever Usopp threw at him, but he was also their captain. This is what he did. 

Chopper only stuck around since it was absolutely his duty to do so. Usopp came to him at first, so he’d damn well see this through to the end. Even so, he did keep three or four syringes on hand, just in case he had to calm Usopp down. One of them also happened to be horse tranquillizer, so Usopp probably wouldn’t get out of hand. 

Robin was just really really curious. 

Luffy sat down on the railing, beside where Zoro had gone to sleep. Since Chopper had also stepped off to the side, Usopp now stood alone in the middle of the grassy deck, Nakama on all sides. “-Um.”

Luffy checked the list Nami had given him. “Okay, so, the first point… ‘Can he do the thing without dancing’...?”

Usopp sputtered. “I-,, yes, of course I can! It just feels better, y’know, moving around while I do it?” At this, Usopp made a little dance, wiggling his arms and legs. 

“Even so, the point is that you should prove it?” Chopper said from where he sat on the grassy deck beside Robin. It made sense. He could tell what was true or false with a thought, but he had to prove it physically, whether to be to his Nakama or himself. 

Usopp grumbled and got to work. Without “dancing”... so, no movement. He crossed his arms, locking them in place. And then, he stared at the little green snake. If getting rid of it wasn’t a possibility, then… At the merest thought, the twitch of an imaginary finger, it grew in size, becoming the size of a twig, a branch, and soon, it hissed happily, large as Usopp’s very own Kabuto. It was still the happy-go-lucky sort, but it was now large enough to avoid being stepped to death.

“Whoa!” Luffy exclaimed, bouncing over to where the snake was doing a belly-dance. The only one on deck with a happier expression on their face was Rabin, whose eyes glittered at the sight of the enlarged serpent. 

Usopp grinned, a bit proud to have gotten a positive reaction for once-, no, wait, hold on, Chopper was terrified. “D-, d-, does it eat reindeer-?...” Um. No. Chopper, it was conjured by magic. If there was one thing it didn’t do, Usopp thought, it was to eat reindeer. Though he could probably program some such affinity into it… Not-, not that he wanted to!

“Alright, that’s one thing off the list!” Luffy said, reaching into his pocket to grab what Usopp could only assume was a pen. 

-When Luffy then found a pen in his pocket, all he could do was give Usopp an odd gaze. “Um. Usopp, you didn’t make this pen, did you?” 

Usopp glanced behind him, to his sides, and then pointed at himself. “-Me?” Luffy nodded, “hey, just cuz something weird happens it doesn’t mean it’s my fault!”

Luffy looked back at the pen, held it up to his face, inspected it closely… “-Then why does it say ‘Usopp inc. made in Syrup Village’ on the side?” 

Usopp choked on nothing. “I-, I-,, I didn’t mean to!!”

“Hey, cool it, don’t go into dogeza again, geez! It’s fine, just make sure it doesn’t happen again, yeah?” Usopp nodded solemnly. “Right, let’s see here,” he checked over the first on the list, “next point, ‘can he just manipulate already existing things, or can he create and destroy as well’... sounds weird. Didja get that, Usopp?”

When Luffy looked up at Usopp, he found the man staring at him with two heads. “”Yeah, I think I got it,”” said both of the heads, seemingly without any self-awareness.

“Um.” Luffy pointed an accusing finger at Usopp’s face while Chopper trembled.

“”What’s wrong?”” the Usopps asked, turning around to see where they were pointing, only to suddenly come face to face. Noses pressing against each other. “”GACK!!” with a cry of fear, one of the heads disappeared, leaving the other head shaking and distraught. “Who-, what-, uh-, uhm.”

Luffy pressed his lips thin. “Create and destroy… check,” he mumbled, crossing half of the statement on the list. That left them with the other statement: manipulating already existing things.

“Wait, isn’t that obvious? I did that all day yesterday!”

Luffy shrugged. “Hey, if the list says you gotta test it…”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Uh…” Usopp reached out a hand, feeling the world ripple under his will. Freaky. He wasn’t exactly sure about what to do, but once he stopped thinking about it, he simply let the grass beneath his hand grow, spiking up and crackling like charmed snakes. Luffy crossed off that part on the list.

“Hmmm, and then… ‘How far away can he do it?’” Luffy said, biting the eraser on the certified Usopp Inc. pen. 

And it was at this moment that the post-gull decided to drop the morning’s paper on Luffy’s head. Even before Luffy could grab it, Usopp knew he wouldn’t like what it said. He didn’t know how he could tell, and he didn’t want to know either. All he knew was that anxiety was rising in him like a tsunami, thankfully not of the literal sort.

Luffy read it aloud. “‘Marine Base G-1 in shambles: Admiral Fujitora revives after remaining lifeless for three minutes’... Usopp?...”

Shit. He… he had done that, hadn’t he…?

The events of yesterday were clear and crisp in his mind, along with that fated line. “Any swordsman stronger than you is gone”. If Usopp’s memory served, the same thing that happened to Fujitora should have happened to Mihawk, but since he was more of the reclusive sort, only he himself might have noticed dying.

A hot wave of guilt washed over Usopp and he felt his knees going weak. “Hey, Usopp!” his captain said from some far-away place.

Seeing Usopp’s legs transform into transparent, formless goo could startle even Robin herself. The adorable green snake Usopp had conjured had wrapped itself around her shoulders, slumbering cutely, but even that wasn’t enough to get her eyes off of the scene happening right before her eyes. 

“Get it together, man!” Luffy ordered, bursting forth to hold the gradually melting Usopp in his arms. 

“A-, ah, Cap’n-,,” Usopp stammered, sporting an impressive vibrato. “‘Fraid this is it… tell Kaya I-,”

Robin smirked lazily at the scene. “Longnose-san, if you don’t finish the list before Nami’s done, she might tax you,” she said sweetly, the hidden threat instantly transforming Usopp’s gelatinous form into something a bit more tangible, snapping into place.

“Y-, yessir!” and with that, he was back. Sure, it’s not like he discarded his shame at committing murder out of nowhere, but any sane human would at least pretend to be okay when threatened with the wrath of Nami. “...Wait. Fujitora is pretty far away, right? Doesn’t that prove something?...”

Luffy rubbed his chin. “Hmmm… do something even further away!”

“Further away… how, exactly? Like… the moon?”

Luffy shrugged. “Yeah?”

Yeah, no. Usopp didn’t need to think for more than a moment to know that altering the moon would get him in trouble. -But doing something in space wasn’t entirely off the table. If things went wrong, he wouldn’t have to tell anybody, and it (probably) wouldn’t fuck anything up too bad. 

Robin petted the snake endearingly. “-I’d recommend not destroying the moon.”

“Yeah, I got that, um. You guys probably won’t see this, but I’m going to do a thing, so…”

The first hitch in the genius plan of “Mess With Space and Don’t Get Caught” was to actually get to space. Manipulating the world was one thing, but changing his own point of view… He was a bit scared to even try. What if he messed up and went blind? What if the world stopped existing because he wasn’t looking at it??

Okay, that last one was a bit hyperbolic, but to the mildly panicking Usopp, it was as likely as the sun going out like a licked matchstick. Which wasn’t likely either. 

He closed his eyes. Breath in, breath out. See the stars before your eyes. Hope you aren’t seeing your imagination.

The world opened up before him. With no limitations, no human eyes to tell him what was wrong and what was right, he saw every star, every twinking, shining soul and every bottomless pit that sucked in the light and the everything there was. He didn’t know the names of them, but he could tell what they were from a glance. Stars and black holes and all-encompassing mothering nebulas, burning asteroids of ice and freezing planets bereft of everything that could possibly create life.

He didn’t breathe. Could he breathe? Did he need to? The answer to those two questions was the very same. 

On the tip of his finger, he could feel the life-breath of the universe. He could strangle it if he wanted to. Snuff out life and death alike. But he didn’t. Hesitation gnawed at him, human recognition and human morals screeching inside his brain, the echoes of everybody he knew and everybody he once knew and everybody he would know bouncing like ferocious ping-pong balls. 

He made it stop. It was so easy. 

He wasn’t there to question himself, or to sight-see, and he knew it. A glance back ensured the position of the world. It was so small, less than a pebble. A blue raindrop in an ocean of things and non-things. He memorized the location, and he knew he could return at any time. Then, he turned to the universe. 

The distance he travelled felt trivial. A thought and he was a dozen systems away. 

Here, he found two stars orbiting each other, twins on a course of collision. One fat and red, ready to burst, the other small and white, heavier by far and yet smaller as well. He took the red star in one hand, feeling it write and seethe in his grip, bubbling with rage and scalding hot. In the other, he took the little white one. It felt like grabbing a freezing cold iron railing. Cold, colder than anything he had ever felt, so cold that it burnt him all the same. 

He held the unwilling siblings. They quivered in his grasp. 

The orbiting planets, robbed of their anchor, proceeded to continue flying in the direction they had been headed in, the centripetal force sending them whizzing in random patterns. Two planets, one gas and the other solid, smashed into each other and became dust. Usopp paid them no heed. 

He could feel the stars in his hands. How they were drawn to each other like magnets, a force of attraction stronger than anything he should have been able to stop. 

He separated them slightly, relishing in how their tugging, dragging desire grew weaker the further apart they were. 

And then, finally…

He tossed them together. 

The resulting explosion was so large, so all-encompassing that it sent him reeling and tumbling through the endlessly empty space, hurtling on a path he’d taken mere moments ago, until, finally, he snapped back into his own body, his physical flesh-and-bone form jerking at the sudden return. His eyes flickered open, and he found himself staring not at the deck of the Sunny, but into the light-blue eyes of a certain archaeologist. “Oh, my.”

“-GAH!!” Usopp shrieked, falling back to the ground. Thankfully, his surprise hadn’t resulted in any strange happenings, but he was still too startled to react properly. “R-, Robin? What were you doing?! That was-, that was dangerous!”

She smiled sweetly and took a step back. “Don’t worry, I was only looking at the stars. A very pretty sight.”

“U-, Usopp, is it true you crashed two stars together??” Chopper asked, voice and body trembling. To illustrate his similar thoughts, Luffy nodded fiercely, hoping to get an answer out of Usopp. 

The man in question could only let his eyes hop erratically between the people present. “Y-, you, um, you saw that?...” Robin nodded, her eyes amused. “Okay. Uh. To clarify, I just wanted to see if it would work, and it did, but, uh.” He squinted at Chopper. “How in the world could you know?...”

Chopper pointed at Robin, who simply laughed. “Oh, yes. Your eyes betray you, Longnose-san.” Her eyes narrowed. “Who knew the outer reaches of the abyss above could be so beautiful?”

Usopp swallowed. “Yeah, sure, I just… Okay! Enough about that! What’s the next one, Captain?”

“Oh! Next one issssssss… ‘How large can it be’... Eh, we’ll skip it. A star is pretty big, right? Bigger than a banana-gator for sure. So, after that… How small can you go?”

How small? Oh, boy, he’d never even considered that one. Though, it shouldn’t be any harder than smashing two stars together. Actually, strangely enough, it had felt more challenging to do all of that than making a snake grow bigger. This suggested that although there was no actual cap on his powers, some things were more difficult than others. Making something really small change…

Easy peasy. 

His eyes focused. To say they focused might be an understatement, no, they zoomed in on whatever was in front of him. At first he thought about doing something with a blade of grass, but upon closer inspection… The air would do just fine. Although it seemed to be filled with exactly nothing, that was hardly the case. The air practically crawled with these tiny, almost invisible clumps of… something. 

He chose one of them. It was small, composed of two collections of matter, each composed of even more. He separated them, watching as the one he chose flailed for connection while the other zoomed off in search of what he denied the other one. 

It was held by the core. Around it, Usopp could somewhat sense a sort of presence. The name rose to his mind unbidden; electrons. Eight of them. 

He removed them. They, too, shot off in seemingly random directions. The core that remained in his grasp quivered and complained at losing its core, but he wasn’t done with that either. It had an equal amount of two parts: eight protons and eight neutrons. Not all of these had so few, but this one did. It wouldn’t have them for long. Plucking off the components, one by one, he felt how it became unbalanced, unstable. Split. In the end, he held a single proton in his hand. 

Looking closer, he found that it wasn’t quite so simple. There was more to it than that, things inside the thing, so small that they were barely anything at all. 

He didn’t need to split them apart to know that he could.

No, he let that remain there. His eyes returned to the here and now, only to find…

Robin staring right into his eyes. Again. Should he even have been surprised? “U-, um.”

She shook her head. “Nothing this time, don’t worry.”

H-, hell yeah he was worried! What if she thought he was doing something weird or got mad?? “Thatisverystartlingpleasestopdoingit.”

With a giggle and a wave, she returned to her seat beside the grass-snake. Going by the way she cooed at it, it had probably already received a name. And if not, it would need one. Soon. …Hancock would be a pretty good name, although the personality was a little off. 

Luffy bounced up to him. “Hey. Usopp. What’d you do? You kinda just zoned out for a moment. Do you need to take a poop?”

Usopp gave him a long, hard look. “I haven’t pooped in over a day. I don’t think I need to poop any longer. I am beyond that. Bow and tremble in fear, mortal, for thy God hath ascended beyond thine plane!” Luffy did not answer. His mouth flopped open, shock and terror painting every feature of his face. Astonishment, no-, no, there was more than that. Genuine awe. Perhaps the first time Luffy ever looked at Usopp in that way. 

It… didn’t feel entirely terrible. Maybe he could live with-,

“Okay, and… that was the last of it!” Chopper reported, having grabbed the list out of Luffy’s limp hands. 

“That’s it?” Usopp asked, hoping a change in topics might bring Luffy out of it. It didn’t.

Going by the way Chopped acted, it would have been the last thing, had Robin not overheard their talk. “-Can you create life?” she asked, a peculiar little smile dancing across her face. Usopp looked at the snake wrapped around her right hand. Before he could point out his evidence, she reiterated. “-Sentient life.”

“Oh no.” Usopp shook his head. “No, no. No. I’m not ready to become a father, not by a long shot!” The green snake hissed unhappily. “I-, um, you’re an exception! The snake is an exception, I’m just-, I’m not doing that. Okay? No human life. I will not. Nuh-uh.”

“How about a kitten?” Robin suggested helpfully.

“A-, a kitten?...” A kitten. He could do that, right? Yeah, he could make a kitten. While Chopper tried getting Luffy out of his daze, Usopp leaned down, plucked a blade of grass from the deck, and gave it life. The only real feature he gave the tiny marimo was the addition of a few instincts, namely: “don’t fall into the ocean,” “run if a battle occurs,” and “stick to Robin.” That was it. With a few thoughts, a small, grassy-green kitten stood before him, eyes blue and bright. 

“Mew!” Usopp could pinpoint the exact moment Robin’s heart melted. 

For a moment, the small thing simply took in the situation, life on deck, everything. The second its lively eyes fell on Robin, it bounded up to her, easily acting on the third instinct it had. Usopp could only smile as Robin fawned over the little thing, the snake accepting it as a younger sibling of sorts. It was a heart-warming scene, one that almost made Usopp forget that he now held the power to create life on a whim. 

“S-, s-, s-, so, you no longer have a weakness??” Luffy finally stammered, apparently having gotten out of his standing coma. Usopp nodded slowly. It was true, although he wasn’t sure if that could have been called his only weakness… Luffy fell to his knees, eyes forlorn and desolate. “You… Usopp, you’ve grown too powerful…”

“Um. Yeah, guess so.”

Chopper pulled his lips tight, eyes skipping between Usopp and Luffy. “Guess so, Luffy. Why, going by all this… it wouldn’t be wrong to say you’ve gained the powers of God. Creation, destruction, life, death… You’ve got it all now, huh?”

Usopp could only unwillingly agree. He’s got it all. And maybe even a little more. 

As he makes to open his mouth, to say something sad and regretful to express his thoughts and feelings on the matter, something stalls him. Some little foreboding knowing that something is about to happen, something he won’t like. Stubbornly, he refuses to act upon the feeling, to move out of the way, to dodge the all-too-predictable slash. 

Wado cuts through his midsection, Zoro moving faster than most mortals can possibly process. He became a blur, but Usopp could see him perfectly. Could see every movement he made, from standing up to slashing him to returning the sword to his sheath. 

Leaving Usopp where he stood. 

Unharmed. 

The blade, hard and coated in haki, had simply passed through him. 

Silence enveloped the deck, and Usopp was left standing, limp-limbed and in shock. 

When that shock passed, it was replaced by fury. “-Z-, ZORO, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?!” He roared, spinning around to face the stone-faced swordsman. Mind painted red and fiery with rage, he stomped the deck, only barely noticing how the world seemed to quake beneath his feet. Zoro didn’t seem phased at all, which only fueled Usopp’s fire. 

A fair ways away, something happened. Some tectonic plate, loosened in unkept rage, crashed up against another, cracking and twisting against each other until…

A large mountain surfaced, just on the horizon. The top opened up, and promptly spewed a fountain of lava. 

He blew his top. 

Slack-jawed and wide-eyed, Usopp and all other members on deck stared at the natural disaster, at the billowing black clouds and the boiling sea that followed. What Usopp did at this sight was on pure instinct. How was he to know that stuffing it down would work from afar? Yes, when he pressed it down, it collapsed back into the waves, hopefully never to be seen again. “-I, hehe, um.”

“You,” Zoro said, pointing an accusing finger at Usopp. “Need to learn to control your emotions.” His eyes sharpened. “-Otherwise, you might hurt someone you’d rather not.”

Usopp growled, but he knew Zoro was right. If he couldn’t control this power… He might be dooming his Nakama just by being on the same ship as them. Not using his powers is one thing, he can gladly stand that, but if he can’t even control when and how he uses them… 

He decided to head towards the kitchen, lost in a downward spiral of negative thoughts. 

Four pairs of curious eyes trailed after him, only to widen once he got to the door leading to the kitchen, where it opened, revealing Sanji, who was only just barely able to start shouting “it’s lunc-,” before noticing he was face-to-face with the walking disaster. Sanji flinched at the intrusion. “Y-, you! How-, how did you-?...”

Usopp tilted his head. “Hm? Isn’t it time for lunch?” And, well, it was. But he shouldn’t have been known that. 

Sanji swallowed, and allowed Usopp passage into the kitchen. 

The rest of the people on deck shared a glance before following shortly after. Sanji left to get the others. And, five minutes later, there they all were. Together. 

The silence that reigned was thankfully not of the heavy sort, but calling it comfortable wouldn’t be true either. People ate, and didn’t talk. Maybe Usopp was the only one who found it slightly awkward, what with the fact that he didn’t feel hungry in the slightest, or maybe everyone else felt the same. He sort of wished they’d talk about something, anything, but with the elephant in the room being himself, he couldn’t much start such a light conversation. 

“-Did you get any conclusions?” Nami finally asked, breaking the ice by getting to the heart of it. 

Chopper and Luffy shared a glance. “Well, um, it seems Usopp really does have omnipotence. Godly powers and all that,” Chopper said, speaking for the both of them. “I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing though…”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a good thing at all,” Usopp commented glumly. The glances he got from that simple statement were enough to get him to elaborate. “I-, well, I mean-, if I could make myself forget, I would! I’ve already done it once, so-”

“I forbid it,” Luffy stated. His eyes were serious, not allowing for any discussion. “That would be a lie I couldn’t stand up for.”

An order. An order from his captain. Godly powers or not, that was not something he could not refuse. Still, although he did relent, he only did so with an unhappy grumble. 

Silence fell upon the crew once more, but it was quickly cut through. 

Someone had decided to get to the root of the matter, the root of what kept everyone quiet. “-Should we use his powers for good?” Robin asked, leaning her head on her hand. An elusive smile painted her dainty lips. All eyes turned to her, knowing she was by far the most intelligent member. The one most suited to telling them the ethics of doing this or that. After all, this wasn’t something they could decide on by doing what felt right, they actually had to think for once. 

“We’ve already agreed that using them to achieve our dreams won’t do. We wouldn’t really be achieving our dreams, and therefore, we won’t do that.” A beat passed. “-Then, what’s to stop us from using his powers for something more… utilitarian? Let’s say we dismantle the World Government. We create a race of moral, powerful and infallible creatures and place them in power. We remove all suffering, all hunger, all pain. We can do that. We could create the perfect world.”

All eyes on her, she let her smile deepen. 

“Once we’ve done that, we would erase the memory of all who lived before the shift. We would ensure that nobody questioned our new, perfect reality.”

Glances were exchanged, some reluctant, some optimistic. But she wasn’t done.

“-Though would that truly be good? In a perfect world lacking nothing, what would there be to strive for? What sins to be regretted, what mistakes to be righted? What dreams to fulfil? None. There would be nothing to struggle to achieve, as everything would already be as perfect as it ever would be. There would be no dreams, for the world would already be too perfect to long for anything better.”

Thick, choking silence filled the room. 

She frowned. A deep, loathsome from. “-It would be a breeding ground for vanity.”

A beat passed. Looks were exchanged.

“-Alright, so, no making everything perfect according to our own worldviews, yeah?” Nami summarized, receiving a quick nod from all members present. “-Right, great. Still, that doesn’t tell us what we should do. Just continuing on as if nothing happened feels a bit… Immoral. Any suggestions?”

Any suggestions on what we should do with godly power? As if anybody would have an answer to tha-,

“Yes, Brook?” Nami asked, turning to the resident skeleton. 

He put his hand down. “Ah, if I’m not mistaken, wouldn’t it be a good idea to create an afterlife of sorts? You’d think I knew all about being dead, but I really don’t, yohohoho! As far as I’ve learnt, death is and has always been the end, so if we wish to prevent future deaths without radically altering the world, an afterlife would do well, no?”

That was… actually not a terrible idea? He could create an afterlife, couldn’t he? Yeah, he could! 

“Lke a safety net, bro?” Franky asked, to which Brook nodded.

Chopper’s eyes glittered at the idea. “No death, no death… Usopp, quick, make one, as soon as possible! The more lives saved, the better!!”

“Hey, geez, cool it! I’ll get to it, don’t worry! I’m good at making gadgets, so this is sure to be easy as pie!” Usopp reassured him. “I’ll have it up and running in a jiffy!”

With that, lunch ended. It would probably have taken a whole deal longer if Chopper wasn’t so adamant about putting Usopp to work as soon as possible. The rules from before, about how Usopp could only do something if another straw-hat agreed to it, would still apply, even with the smaller things. As it happened, since Usopp decided to work in his Workshop (for greater focus), he’d actually be sharing his workplace with Franky, which was lucky on his part since he wouldn’t need to go far to gain his permission. 

Well there, Usopp took his seat, and instantly lost his train of thought, not that he had one. All things considered, he had no idea where to even begin. 

He took a glance at Franky, noting how he was still working on the Mini-Merry. Right. 

He looked back at his bench, finding it filled to the brim with oddities, as it usually was, but no paper. Or pen, for that matter. Taking another look at Franky, once he got the larger man’s attention, he made a few scribbling motions, receiving a nod in return. Permission granted. A little thought later and he held a piece of paper and a pen in hand. Perfect.

He scribbled down a few notes. Having it be in this dimension would be a bit problematic and didn’t feel right, so… different dimension it was.

-That is, if he could create one of those. 

Only one way to find out. 

Reaching out his hands, he grabbed a hold of the fabric of the universe, of the dimensions and everything in it. It rippled and moved, untamed. The fabric was coarse, rough, not made for ripping and tearing. How did he know it wasn’t made for ripping and tearing? Why, because he did it himself. Just straight up ripped a hole in the fabric of time and space. The hole fluttered and coiled for a moment, before revealing a vast expanse of white within. 

Alright. Sure. Now…

He grabbed a little trinket from his bench and placed it inside the white hole and sealed it shut. A few moments passed before he opened it again, finding the trinket still there, unharmed, unaltered. Alright. Perfect. It was a dimension, not something he made, simply something that existed. Somewhere he could keep the afterlife within. That was all he needed to know, and with that knowledge acquired, he zipped the dimension back up. 

Now… for the matter of actually creating the afterlife itself. He had a few ideas, nothing concrete…

He sat down, and got scribbling. A minute passed, and another. He chewed at the rubber eraser on the end of the pencil. 

“Hey, Franky?”

“Yeah, bro?” 

Usopp scratched at his head with the pencil. “Would it be alright if I gave myself some insight?”

Franky laughed. “Hah! Absolutely not. Don’t even think about it; how could I possibly allow our Gadgeteer to leave his insight to someone else?”

“Hey, it isn’t someone else, it’s still me!”

“Sure, sure.” Franky grinned, fastening a bolt. “-Got stuck?”

“Um, yeah. Sort of,” Usopp replied. He didn’t actually know where he was going himself, how could he possibly explain it to Franky? “Well, I’ve got kind of an idea, but it’s really weird? I think, well… I think I’ll have it so that when someone dies, their brain is automatically transported to the afterlife, where they’ll get a new body to do… something with. Still unsure on that part.”

“Hm? Not gonna give ‘em souls or something?”

Usopp shook his head. He’d considered that earlier. “Nah, nah. I’m afraid it’ll just be a clone of the person, not their actual consciousness. My problem isn’t actually with the whole brain-switching, that I can do, I’m just unsure what to replace it with. Like, if it’s just gone people will be weirded out, so-,” an idea popped in his head. “Wait. What if-,”

And then, the idea popped into existence. An idea called a “proto-brain,” a mass of dead neurons lacking any and all individuality. It was exactly the same as any old brain, the same pink, worming swirls and the same human DNA, but it was dead, dead and gone. 

Such a thing plopped into Usopp’s stretched-out hand. 

Usopp took one look at it, made a “GUH” sound, and jerked his hand back from under it, letting it splatter onto the floor instead. Franky recoiled from the sight, rightfully disgusted. 

“I, um, uh. That is-, not a real brain. Like it has all the parts of a real brain, but-, but it isn’t alive. Or anything. Like-, like that.” Franky didn’t seem much convinced, face twisted in revulsion, which was pretty much what the proto-brain deserved. It was a gross sight, and Usopp didn’t spare a moment to wipe it from existence. “-Okay, uh. I now know what to do. Don’t-, don’t worry about me, yeah? I’ll-, I’ll be fine. Yup. Totally fine.”

And, for a while, he was! Once he got the hang of it, creating the system took less than he thought it would. It probably helped that he had full control over how he made it, but still. 

Hunched over his workbench, his fingers flitted about the amorphous, irregular representation of how the system worked, of how it could transport people into the dimension Usopp created. Make them live forever, elsewhere. And, after less time than Usopp thought, he was all done! He put a few decorations in the otherwise empty white void, made sure people would feel invited, and the only thing left now would be to start i-,

“How’s it goin’, Longnose-bro?” Franky asked, stepping over to where Usopp sat. 

“Oh, hi! I’m almost done, I think!” With a smile on his face, Usopp tore an opening in space and time, barely catching how Franky’s eyes widened at the sight, and promptly presented him with the inside. He pointed at one of the three buildings. “-Look, there’s even a bar!” 

Franky scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Is, uh, is this all of it?...” Usopp nodded energetically. “-Right, okay, um. How about you make a complete copy of the real world? How’s that?”

Usopp’s smile faltered. “Well, if I wanted to do that I could just have them reincarnate, duh. Which isn’t very logical, I’ve found.”

Neither is tearing a hole in space and time, but Franky doesn’t mention that. Instead, he looks back inside the dimension, squinting slightly. “How about you ask some dead people what they’d like?...”

Usopp stared at him. And then at the dimension. And then back at him. His face lit up in realization. “-Holy heck, that’s genius! Yeah, okay, I’ll do that!”

And while Usopp got started on that, Franky returned to his work. What a bother.

He had a system. He had a dimension. He had his afterlife. Now, all he needed was a guinea pig. Getting a hold of one of these would be easy as pie. All he had to do was activate the system for a single individual, the single person who died last, and then he could just ask them what they’d want in an afterlife! Easy as pie!

He got to work. 

\--------------

Dying in the heat of battle was hardly as glorious as his new captain had made it sound like. No, when Rick died, he did not do so with a smile on his face. He did it with a face full of pain and a heart full of bitter, bitter regrets. As he laid there on the salty un-swabbed deck, bleeding out from a wound he didn’t think would be fatal, his thoughts lingered on his family. His wife and daughter. The people he’d risked his life and become a pirate for. Not much else you can do up here in North Blue. Short on cash, you either became a pirate or whale-bait.

He’d chosen the former, and in hindsight, he really should have gone for the latter. Maybe then his killer wouldn’t have seemed so unhappy about killing him. That was almost the worst part.

When he closed his eyes, darkness ravaged his mind and body, drowning his consciousness until…

It disappeared.

Replaced by an endless, blinding light. White as far as the eye could see. Harsh, unhappy light that made his eyes hurt and his heart hurt and his mind hurt. Where the hell was he? He knew he died, that much was for sure, but then… Was this the afterlife? He’d never been much of a believer, but even then, he really would have thought that there’d be more than this.

Ah, hold on, it isn’t empty. Far away, on that endless horizon, he could just barely spot three or four houses. He didn’t walk towards them. Not because they didn’t interest him, not because he hadn’t seen them, no…

The reason was simply that there was something more interesting to be seen right now than a couple of houses.

No, up high, high up on that white expanse, he could see something, someone, looking down at him. Peeking out from a hole in the white. Dark, tan face, long nose, curly hair…

Was that God? Face half-hidden, glancing out, trying not to be seen?

Rick brought up a hand, trying to shield his eyes to see the person more. At being noticed, the man’s eyes quickly flared open as he retreated back into the space beyond the white. Rick would not take defeat so easily. That was a person, and damn it all if he wasn’t getting some answers! “Hey! You, up there! Who are you!? Where am I!?” No answer. Before Rick could shout something else, the person slowly re-emerged. Face pulled tight, he looked to the left and to the right. He seemed nervous. Finally, with a trembling finger, he pointed to himself. “-Yes, you! Are you God!?”

The man hesitated for a moment before looking back out into the area beyond-the-white. Rick couldn’t quite hear it, but he knew the man said something along the lines of “I’ll be right back.”

He soon turned back to the hole. Took a deep breath. Steeled his spirits. Grabbed a strong hold of the edges. Put one foot through the hole. It trembled. He put another foot through. And there he sat. For a moment, he simply sat there, stiff as a board, as nervous as can be. Usually, Rick would take pity on such a sight, but considering that he died mere minutes ago, he no longer held any such reservations. “-Jump!!”

And he did. In a movement that seemed to say “if I die it’s your fault,” the man released his hold on the opening, and fell. Fast. And long. Accompanied by his own screams. 

Was he going to di-,

With a mighty crash, the man smashed into the white floor, spread eagle as one can be. High up above, the hole in the white mended itself, eventually fading into nothingness. This was the first thing the man noticed upon standing up, and it didn’t seem to help his already frayed nerves in the least. “Ohshitohfuckthat’sprobablybad.”

That doesn’t bother Rick much though. No, what bothered Rick is how the man was dressed.

Like a damn carpenter. Poofy, sturdy overalls that had clearly seen some wear and tear, a casual T-shirt, a pair of boots… Hardly the image of God. Not that Rick was complaining (much), any company was good company. “Okay, um, question one, who the fuck are you? Question two, where the fuck am I? And question three, are you God?”

The man held up his hand to quiet the dead. “Wait, hold on.” With that, all of a sudden, he just… He just ripped a hole in the white nothingness. Simply made a hole in it. And in that hole, he poked his head through. Fearlessly. Well in there, Rick could clearly hear him say: “Hey, Franky? I can do whatever I want in the other dimension, right?” before receiving a hesitant affirmation. 

“Great, yeah, okay, so. Rick Råhl. My name is Usopp, and I… I guess I’m God? Sort of, anyway, I’m making an after-world, so if you’re wondering, yes, you died, and I’m very sorry for your loss. But! Look on the bright side! You’re the very first inhabitant of the afterlife, congratulations!” With that, confetti spawned from nothing, alongside a few celebratory toots. 

Rick watched it all happen. “Uh, okay. Thanks?”

“-So, first of all, I’m glad this works, and second of all…” Usopp scratched his cheek meekly. “Well, I, uh. I kinda need your help. I’m not sure what people will want to see once they die, so I kind of need your input, yeah? Just-, just help me out, okay?”

Alright. God needs his help to create a good afterworld. 

...what. 

How-, what, uh. Sure. Because that’s what he always thought death would be like. 

...God needs his help…

-God needs his help. 

Ohoh. 

Now, Rick never was the smartest fellow. If he’d been, getting a well-paying job to support his family would’ve been easy as pie. Since he wasn’t, the only facet of his cognition he could abuse to get ahead in life was his natural-born slyness. Clever as a fox, they always said. He knew how to get ahead in life when presented with the opportunity. 

And here he had God, in need of his assistance. On a silver plate!

And Rick knew just what to ask for. 

“-This is a trade, isn’t it?”

Usopp stopped in his tracks. “It’s a-, well, I, um. Maybe?”

Rick grinned. He was lucky God was a bit of a fool. “I’ll help you, and you’ll help me. It’s a deal?” Usopp nodded slowly. Very slowly. In but a moment, Rick lit up in cheer. “Alright! Then, you’ll make sure my family survives, yeah? That my daughter grows up well and doesn’t end up like her old man?”

“I-, uh-, um, what?” Usopp stuttered, recoiling a bit at how enthusiastic Rick was being. “Well, that’s… I can’t do that, you know? It… It wouldn’t be very fair.” Rick deflated on the spot. “A-, ah, but I’ll help them, sure! Just… just a little though, okay? I won’t make them Celestial Dragons or anything, but I’ll make up for them losing you. That’s fair enough, isn’t it?”

Yeah, okay. Fair enough, he supposed. Rick accepted the trade. 

The rest of the time went by in a blur. Transforming that empty space into a place where people could come and exist and live out their dreams was harder than expected, and even though God seemed pretty excited about all the ideas Rick came up with, he still felt so much like a kid. Didn’t seem like an adult in the least. Excited about the idea of having the afterworld be one big endless sea of dreams to explore. 

It was… quaint, and after some time, Rick couldn’t honestly say that he loathed having such a person be God. He was alright. 

“-Alright, that’s all of it!” Usopp finally said, wiping his brow as a wide grin overtook his face. Not the first time the boy divine had grinned that day, and hopefully wouldn’t be the last time either. “Once I leave and turn on the system, you’ll get company real fast, although you might not notice at first since the world is so big… I hope you have fun though, realizing your dreams and all.”

Rick smiled. “Yeah, I will.” Their promise resurfaced in his mind. “-And you’ll take care of them, right? Just for a little bit.”

Usopp gave an affirming nod. 

And with that, the young God reached out his hand and touched Rick’s forehead. And in that moment, all of a sudden, Rick forgot the name and face of God. He could remember knowing him, he could remember his laughter and how the world was formed, but not his name, nor his face. And then, he was gone. 

Rick was dead, but he wasn’t gone.

\--------

Usopp almost felt like crying. God, one moment he had to get to know some dead guy, and the next, he had to leave him. 

Though, this did cement the fact that the afterworld was complete! A quick look into the white dimension ensured that people were dropping in as they should, momentary confusion quickly replaced by relief and joy. Nobody wants to die, and now, they didn’t have to. At least, not in any true manner. 

Still, he had a promise to fulfil. A place to be.

North Blue. 

He’d need his captain’s permission for a voyage like that, no matter how short it would be in the end. 

To do so, he quickly left the workshop, giving Franky a little wave that the cyborg happily returned. Well outside, Usopp found Luffy surprisingly soon. Sure, he could have used his Godly powers to know where he’d be, but that… No, he wouldn’t do that. As it turns out, during the entire afternoon, Luffy and Chopper had been sitting right outside the entrance on the railing. Fishing. Hmm. For some reason, Usopp suspected their reason for sitting there was more than just catching fish. 

“Yo,” Luffy greeted, one hand in the air. Usopp returned the gesture.

“Hey, Luffy, mind if I go to North Blue real quick?” Luffy squinted. “I’ll be back before dinner, I swear.”

Luffy nodded. “Makes sense to me. Take care!” 

“N-, no, wait!” Chopper interjected, keeping Usopp from heading off quite yet. “Didja finish the, um, afterworld?”

“Sure did. No worries there.”

“O-, okay! That’s good!” Chopper said with a little laugh, his whole face lighting up in relief. And no wonder, any doctor of any merit would want their patients to survive. Knowing they can live on elsewhere is almost as good as curing them. Knowing he had made Chopper happy brightened Usopp’s general countenance a bit. 

Now, how to get to North Blue…

“-Hey, Usopp?” Luffy whispered. If you could call it that. It was a breathless sort of whisper, the wind tattling, and Usopp knew instantly that only he could hear it. This was private. “-Can you bring people back?” Usopp froze in place. “Make-, make them alive again?...”

“...No.” He didn’t say it aloud. Just a passing whisper through Luffy’s mind. As silent as it was true. His captain didn’t show it on his face. Didn’t make a business of showing how much the rejection hurt him inside. But Usopp could feel it. As much as he wished he couldn't feel it, couldn’t feel how his captain felt, it was there. Everywhere around him. 

Loss. Either you know it, or you don’t.

To be human is to die, second-hand or not.

Usopp couldn’t resurrect people. What’s gone is gone. 

Even then, there were things Usopp could do, promises with the dead to keep. 

He took the form of a seagull. 

He flew like an arrow, straight and true. Knowing his destination, he didn’t even need to think. The endless blues stretched out both below and above him, becoming infinite together. Islands passed beneath him, mere blots in the ocean. When he got to his destination, he knew it immediately. Down below, the half-sunk ship called to him. A siren’s song. 

It was a ship of the dead. Bodies littered the deck, some half-dead, most fully gone. He saw Rick quickly. 

His body was so alike the rest that it felt wrong. On his back, facing the heavens, face twisted into a frozen grimace of agony and terror. The first thing Usopp did was to remedy this little fact. The face, previously stiff from rigour mortis now changed form, loosened up, and became serene. Calm. It was the least he could do. 

After that, he placed the body in a rowboat and made sure to put a forgotten purse full of gemstones and Rick’s very own diary in it as well. All he had to do then was to lead it home.

The island Rick’s family lived in was small, barren and unsuited for farming. His family lived out on the Rockies, and leading Rick and his boat over to where they might find him was easy as pie. Although seeing them grieve his loss, seeing how consumed by sorrow and misery they were, he couldn’t help but feel that he did the right thing. He gave them closure. 

And one day, years from now, they might just meet him again. They weep now, but one day, they will celebrate. 

They will be reunited.

Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t such a bad thing at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh did Robin's argument even make any sense I mean the thing that makes us so human is our constant struggle to improve and if everything was already perfect there wouldn't be anything cool to do I guess eH


End file.
